Régua sits where the Douro valley opens enough to hold a town, and it has been the commercial heart of the wine country for a very long time. In 1756 the Portuguese crown drew a boundary around the vineyards of the upper Douro, making it one of the first officially demarcated wine regions in the world, and the town's role as a market and shipping point goes back further. Port wine from the high terraces was loaded onto flat-bottomed rabelo boats here and floated down to the lodges at Vila Nova de Gaia, near Porto, a journey that took days and cost many a boatman his life in the rapids.
The river view is the reason for the stop. From the quay and the riverside gardens you look across a broad green stretch of water to slopes combed into terraces, the stone walls built from the local schist and the vines growing in thin, stony soil that seems to have no business supporting anything. The geometry is extraordinary, with each terrace following the contour of the hill, and the colours shift with the season, green in summer, gold and red in October when the harvest ends. A railway line runs along the bank, and slow trains still rattle past, a pleasure to watch from the water's edge.
The ride along the river is among the best in Portugal. The N222 between Régua and Pinhão is often named one of the finest driving roads in the world, and it has the surface and the curves to deserve it, with long, flowing bends beside the river and views of the terraces on the opposite bank. Traffic is light outside the harvest and summer weekend peaks, though trucks and tractors appear in the vintage season. In high summer the heat in the valley is fierce, and a ride in the early morning or late afternoon is far more pleasant.
Régua is a town of about five thousand people at its centre, with a larger municipality around it, and it has fuel stations, supermarkets and cafés. Lamego, a few kilometres away, is bigger and well known for its baroque sanctuary at the top of a long monumental staircase. The Douro Museum in Régua tells the story of the region and its wine.
Sit on the riverfront with a coffee and a pastel de nata, and watch the light change. If you have the time, a short river cruise lets you see the terraces from the water, as the boatmen once did.